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Kellogg

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Kellogg Surname Genealogy

The
surname Kellogg is curious in that it crossed the Atlantic from England
to America where it established itself. However, by the time that
William Kellogg had started his Kellogg's Corn Flakes and brought them
to England, the Kellogg name had virtually disappeared in England.

Originally, Kellogg was an occupational name for a pork butcher,
derived from the Medieval English kellen,
meaning "to kill" or "to slaughter," and hog, meaning hog or pig. The
surname first appeared as Kyllehog in Essex in the 13th century.
It is possible that the surname Kellowe (which appeared in Essex
records in 1420) might have been an early variant of Kellogg.
Less likely is the similar-sounding Kelloch of Scottish origin.

England.
Essex has an early notation of the Kellogg name - a Geoffrey Kyllehog -
in its Court rolls of 1277. The first record of a Kellogg family was in
Debden, Essex in 1525 where Nicholas Kellogg was recorded as being
taxed. Nicholas's son Thomas is believed to be the ancestor of
the Kelloggs from Great Leighs who embarked for America two generations
later.

By the time of the 1881 census Kellogg had almost disappeared as a
surname in England. Only five Kelloggs were recorded then, in
locations as far apart as London and Liverpool.

America. Joseph Kellogg
and his brothers Samuel and Daniel were Puritans who had left their
home in Essex for America in the 1630's. Most Kelloggs in
America are the descendants of these three brothers.

Joseph settled in Hadley, Massachusetts, Samuel in Hatfield, and Daniel
helped found Norwalk, Connecticut. Samuel Kellogg was among the
party of English captives taken by Indians and marched to Canada in the
1677 raid on Hatfield.

Later, many of the early Kelloggs moved through the Hudson river valley
in New York state. The descendants of Daniel generally stayed in
New England, those of Joseph and Samuel had begun a migration to the
Midwest by the 1700's. The greater number of Kelloggs were living
in New York state by the time of the 1840 census. By 1920 they
had spread out to
Michigan and California.

Michigan Francis
Kellogg was one who made the migration from New England to
Michigan. He started a lumber business at Kelloggville (named
after him) near Grand Rapids in the 1850's. Another was John
Preston Kellogg who had been born in Hadley, Massachusetts:

one
of his children was John Harvey Kellogg, perhaps America's first health
fanatic.

another was Will Keith (W.K.) Kellogg, born
in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1860. He was the founder of the
Kellogg's breakfast
cereals that are now ate all around the world.

California
Meanwhile, Dr. Albert Kellogg had been drawn to San Francisco by the
1848 Gold Rush. He was a botanist and devoted much of his time to
the study of trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Others who
made the trek west were the brothers Florentine and Frank Kellogg from
Illinois.

"Frank had made the migration to
California, starting out in a wagon train that included the ill-fated
Donner party. When the Donners and a few others decided to try a
"new shortcut" to California, Kellogg elected to stay with the main
party. He arrived in northern California in time to join Major
Fremont and fight in the Mexican War."

Frank's son Clay
Kellogg made a name for himself for his civil
engineering works in Orange county. His home in Santa Ana has
been preserved as a museum and his descendants today run Kellogg Garden
Products in southern California.

Elsewhere There
were also Kelloggs in NW Louisiana by the mid 19th century.
The first to arrive was Titus Kellogg, his wife Lucy and children,
after his business in Ohio had failed in 1839. Before she died in
1881, Lucy
Kellogg
recorded the details of her family's trip from Ohio to the wilderness
of Louisiana and the troubles they experienced there.

The entire Kellogg line was first traced in Timothy Hopkins' 1903
three-volume work Kelloggs in the
Old World and the New. The author had a number of
connections with the Kellogg family, being raised by "two elderly
maiden Kellogg great aunts" and marrying Mary Kellogg Crittenden, a
niece of his adopted mother. Select
Kellogg Miscellany

If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for
further stories and accounts:

William
Pitt Kellogg was a friend of President Lincoln. He came to
Louisiana after the Civil War and emerged as its carpetbagging Governor
in the 1870's.Morris Kellogg founded the M.R.
Kellogg Company in New York in 1901, a company - now known as KBR -
which went on to be a leader in power plant construction and in oil
industry process engineering. W.K. Kellogg from Michigan
founded in 1906 the Kellogg Company which today produces a wide range
of breakfast cereals around the world.Select Kelloggs
Today

5,000 in America (most numerous
in Michigan)

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